Art and theater reviews covering Seattle to Olympia, Washington, with other art, literature and personal commentary.
If you want to ask a question about any of the shows reviewed here please email the producing venue (theater or gallery) or email me at alec@alecclayton.com. If you post questions in the comment section the answer might get lost.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

For one night only, Tacoma Little Theatre will present Neil LaBute's Wrecks as a staged reading.

Wrecks is the story of a man coming to
terms with the death of his wife, and the dark secret that brought them
together. The revelations in his internal monologue are woven into his more general disapproving commentary on a culture too prone to public confession and emotional display. (What we, the audience, are hearing is what’s happening inside his head.) As befits a character whose story has parallels with a certain Greek myth, he speaks occasionally of the role of “the happenstance of life” and “the way the universe likes to play it.”

Tickets for the December 3 performance at 7:30 p.m. are $10.00 for non TLT Members, and FREE for those who are members. Tickets may be purchased online at www.tacomalittletheatre.com, or by calling our Box Office at (253) 272-2281.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Liam Loughridge as Raphie in A Christmas Story at Tacoma Little Theatre.
Photo by Dennis K Photography.

December is upon us, and that means a
smorgasbord of Christmas stories at area theaters, but not so much the tried
and true holiday sentimentality that’s usually trotted out. There are some
twists on the usual holiday fare this year, including a holiday whodunit and
the traditional A Christmas Carol
presented as a one-man show.

Centerstage in Federal Way once again thrills
audiences of all ages with a traditional British Panto, this one a repeat of
their hugely popular and outlandish version of Sleeping Beauty, with
rocking popular music, and screamingly wicked humor aimed at children and
adults, through Dec. 20The Knutzen Family Theatre

Tacoma’s exciting new fringe company Tacoma
Actors Repertory Theatre is producing A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story as
a one-man show using Charles Dickens’ original script and performance notes
narrated by Byron Tidwell. There will be four performances only at 2 and 8
p.m., Nov. 19 and 20, Tacoma Armory, 715 South 11th St., Tacoma. Tickets are
available online at www.tacomarep.org.

For something completely different, The
Changing Scene Theatre Northwest, presents David Sedaris' irreverent holiday
one-man show, The Santaland Diaries about a starving actor in New York City
who reluctantly takes a job as an elf at Macy's. This one is recommended for
ages 16 and older due to mature themes and language. It runs Dec. 3, 6, 10 and 13 at 8 p.m. at
Tacoma Musical Playhouse. TMP is also doing A Charlie Brown Christmas,
Dec. 19-24. 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, https://tmp.org/.

But tradition can’t be ignored, and to prove
it, Tacoma Little Theatreis proud to present the holiday show that sends
everyone right back to their most prized childhood memories, A
Christmas Story, Jean Shepherd'stouching and hilarious tale of Ralphi’s quest
for a Red Ryder BB gun. You know the story, it’s the one with the tongue to the
lightpole and the lamp with the lady leg. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2
p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27-Dec. 20, 210 North I St., Tacoma, http://www.tacomalittletheatre.com/.

And finally, Harlequin Productions is doing
its 20th installment of their original, locally written and hugely popular
Stardust Christmas series. This one, The Stardust Christmas Dazzle, is a
popular music extravaganza set in Manhattan’s Stardust Club in 1959. Nov.
27-Dec. 31 State Theater, 202 E. 4th Ave., http://www.harlequinproductions.org/

South Puget Sound Community College art professor Joe Batt has created a
world of charcoal, wood and ceramic adults and children, mostly children.Digital media have taken control of their lives — a
comically surrealist world not too far removed from the world most of us live
in today. I’ve seen bits and pieces of this world in exhibitions at SPSCC and
Tacoma Community College and a full-scale installation at Salon Refu a year ago
this month, but never have I seenhis In the Cloud
world presented as such a complete environment as in his current installation
at the gallery at TCC.

The first thing to greet the eye upon entering the gallery is a
life-size drawing in charcoal on paper of a group of young girls standing
behind a rope line, hanging on, leaning to the right and looking to the left.
They are strange looking girls, staring
wide-eyed in fear or wonderment at something not yet seen as if waiting for the
first part of a parade to arrive. Hanging from the ceiling above them is a
satellite in orbit rendered in charcoal and pastel on a cut-out wood shape. The
satellite casts a double shadow on the empty white wall to the left in front of
which stands a strange little ceramic child wearing large futuristic goggles.

Behind this entry the gallery opens up to a profusion of similar
drawings and sculptures of children and young adults captured by their
electronic media, many talking on smart phones or holding tablets in hand, many
wearing these goggles or visors (somewhat like
the one Jordi on Star Trek wore, only
larger). The ceramic children stand or sit on sculpture stands. Two of them are
on a tall ladder reaching out toward the satellite just above them, and there
are more cut-out paper drawings on the wall. The space is filled with them.
It’s almost claustrophobic. It’s a futuristic environment the viewers do not so
much look at as immerse themselves into. It is frightening and comical, and
perhaps all too true to the world we live in.

The drawn and sculpted human figures have an almost primitive,
“outsider” quality. Charcoal and pastel are the perfect graphic media for the
sketchy drawing on the overhanging satellites, which have the surface quality
of paint on weathered boards but with a sweet glow that comes from the natural
wood color shining through.

On one wall there is a set of three
digital collages that are different in technique and appearance than everything
else in the installation, even though the same strange children and satellites
can be seen. The description, “digital collage” on the wall labels is
insufficient to explain. They seem to be photographs of Batt’s drawings and
sculptures along with photographs of live models, digitally collaged together
in transparent layers. Everything is in soft focus, and the overall coloring is
gray. There is a dreamy quality to these pieces. Despite their striking
differences from the rest of the show, they fit quite well because of the
tonality and imagery..

It is a breathtaking installation. I get the feeling that with this show
Batt has taken this theme as far as it can go and will now have to look toward
finding a new direction for his art. I look forward to seeing what he does
next.

Joe Batt In the Cloud, noon to 5
p.m. Monday-Friday, through Dec. 11, Tacoma Community College Building 5A,
entrance off South 12th Street between Pearl and Mildred, Tacoma, visitor
parking in Lot G.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

StoryOly premiered its monthly Story Slam Tuesday
of last week with a dozen funny, poignant, and in at least once instant
harrowing stories told by local storytellers. StoryOly is a project of Olympia
Actor’s League, hosted by Elizabeth Lord and produced by Amy Shephard. Community members come together every month to
share and tell stories based on a specific theme. The theme for this premiere
events was “First Time.”

Storytellers put their names in a hat and are picked one by one, to
take the stage. Ten featured stories are scored by a team of judges selected
from the audience. There is one winner each month, and the winners will face off
in a Grand Slam Championship next September.

Last night they broke their own rules — nice start, StoryOly — by
allowing one extra story plus an “icebreaker” tale by professional storyteller
Sam Miller, who told a funny tale about his father getting a haircut every day.
It took young Sam years to figure out what his father was really doing with his
so-called haircutter.

First contestant up for the evening was Devin Felix, a Mormon kid
who told about learning from another first grade kid in school that you could
flash a middle finger but it didn’t “count” if you held a thumb up behind the
offensive finger. His story was about what happened when he demonstrated his revelation
to the entire school. Like Miller’s story before him, Felix’s tale turned out
to be a touching father-and-son story.

Ingrid Bond talked about being a military kid and seeing an
otherworldly light in Santa Fe.

Robert Perez-Rosales told all about his first
kiss and all the many failures to connect with the opposite sex as he was
growing up an extremely shy kid. The story rang true, and the audience reaction
indicated that many listeners must have had similar experiences in their childhoods.

Rebecca Hom’s first time had a surprise
ending, as all of us in the audience fell for her intended purpose of making us
think she was leading up to her first sexual experience.

Next came Paul Current who told about finding
out his first girlfriend worked in a brothel. His story was hilarious and
possibly made up, which is against the rules since all stories are supposed to
be true. I thought it should have been the overall winner; but the judges
didn’t agree.

Cameron Comb told another first-kiss story.
It was a first same-sex kiss story preceded by a first opposite-sex kiss story,
and Comb said the latter was by far the best, not to denigrate poor Chip, who
gave it his best.

Brian McCracken’s story about demonstrating
at the Democratic National Convention was interesting but a little disjointed.

Billie Mazzei told a harrowing story about
having a potentially fatal accident the first time she ever drove alone. It was
a powerful story with lighthearted relief at the end.

Ned Hayes told about his days as a chaplain
in a hospital and how an art appreciation class helped him possibly save a
wounded soldier.

Michelle Murray once worked as a funeral
director and embalmer. She told about a time they almost buried the wrong body.

And finally, Heidi (didn’t get her last name) told about daydreaming
as a child and how it led to work as a librarian and helped her discover the
power of stories — a fitting story to end the night.

The judges gave the highest score to Felix
for his middle finger story.

The next OlyStory Slam will be Dec. 15 with
the theme “Tis the Season.” Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5.
Half of all proceeds are donated to Safe Place Olympia.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Photo,
from left: Stephanie Nace, Harrison Fry and Vanessa Postil in A Murder for Old Times’ Sake. Courtesy
Open Road Productions.

Musical Murder Mystery at Pellegrino’s Event Center!

Published in the Weekly Volcano,
Nov. 19, 2015

Rob Taylor (left) and Kyle Henick. Courtesy
Open Road Productions.

Presented by Pellegrino’s Italian
Kitchen and Open Road Productions, A
Murder for Old Time’s Sake is a musical murder mystery dinner theater
extravaganza that just might have you laughing so hard you spit out your Tuscan
Pork Loin (or Parsnip Steak Marsala). It’s funny, it’s got great music, and a
complicated mystery plot that you, the audience, will be asked to solve. And to
top it all off, it comes with a three-course dinner from executive chef Sam
Pellegrino.

I attended a dress rehearsal the
night before opening night and came away thinking this is the funniest of the
three dinner theaters I’ve seen at Pellegrino’s.

It’s the 20th reunion of
the South Pattersfield High School class of 1995, and gathered together is a
quintet of former lovers and enemies plus the school principal. There’s Biff
(Kyle Henick), the class clown, football hero and bully; Nancy (Vanessa
Postil), Biff’s ex-wife who also “like-likes” David (Rob Taylor), the class
nerd who invented a self-cleaning toilet and became fabulously wealthy — take
that, Biff, for giving me that swirly. And there’s Lucy (Stephanie Nace), who
was nobody special in high school and is now a famous mystery writer whose
latest novel, Murder Comes to High School,
eerily mirrors what is about to happen at the reunion; and Billy (Harrison Fry),
class president and most likely to succeed, who ends up as the janitor at South
Pattersfield High. Finally, there’s the drunken, idiotic school principal, Horace
McGuffin (Dennis Rolly).

from left: Stephanie Nace, Harrison Fry and Vanessa Postil in A Murder for Old Times’ Sake. Courtesy
Open Road Productions.

Right after a great rocking song.
“It’s Biff” sung by Henick, somebody gets murdered. One of the five survivors
must be the murderer, and it’s up to them, with the help of the audience, to
figure out who did it. In the process, we’re treated to more great music and
comedy plus a couple of spoof commercials.

The entire ensemble is outstanding —
good actors and singers, with the bonus that physically they’re even cast to
type, not that we even know what any of them look like, but they certainly look
the way I would picture them. It was an especially enjoyable treat to see
Henick, an actor I have seen only once before, and it was great to see Nace
back on stage again after a long hiatus. Rolly and Taylor were both solid, and
this is the best acting I’ve yet seen from Fry.

If some of the music is reminiscent
of Harlequin’s A Rock and Roll Twelfth
Night, it’s because some of them are adaptations of songs from that show
and were written by the same composer and lyricist, Scot Whitney and Bruce
Whitney, with lyrics for three new songs written by Daven Tillinghast. The band
is the Wildwood Orchestra, led by Brad Schrandt (keyboard), with David Broyles
(guitar), Cameron Arneson (bass) and Andy Garnes.

There are repeated intermissions
during which second and third courses and dessert are served, and during which
cast members wander through the audience in character so audience members can
quiz them in order to suss out the killer. Audience members can fill out a
sleuth sheet with their guesses about who the murderer is and how and why he or
she did it. There are prizes awarded from those.

A
Murder for Old Time’s Sake was written by
Andrew Gordon and directed by Jeff Painter. Including dinner and intermissions,
it runs a little more than three enjoyable hours.

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About Me

I am an artist and writer living in Olympia, Washington. I write an art review column, a theater review column and arts features for the Weekly Volcano, a community theater review column for The (Tacoma) News Tribune and regular arts features for OLY ARTS (Olympia).
My published novels are: This Is Me, Debbi, David; Tupelo; The Freedom Trilogy (a three-book series consisting of The Backside of Nowhere, Return to Freedom and Visual Liberties); Reunion at the Wetside; The Wives of Marty Winters; Imprudent Zeal and Until the Dawn. I've also published a book on art, As If Art Matters. All are available on amazon.com.
I grew up in Tupelo and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and have been living in the Pacific Northwest since 1988 where I am active in many progressive organizations such as PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).